In honor of Black History Month, below are highlights of some of the many distinguished African-Americans, past and present, who have made known their dissent from religion. For more information, see FFRF’s Freethought of the Day series.

Major 20th-century author James Baldwin’s many great novels and essays were inspired by his experiences living as a disenfranchised, black, gay man in a country that largely shunned these characteristics. Baldwin was a leading voice for the civil rights movement.

“If the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him.”

A lifelong champion of civil rights who chaired the NAACP and helped found both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Institute, Julian Bond was a pioneering black state legislator in Georgia who became a cultural icon and national voice for social justice.

The “Maverick of Omaha” and “defender of the downtrodden” has served for decades in the Nebraska state Senate, where he has defended civil rights as well as the rights of women, LGBTQ, farmers and criminals in an overwhelmingly white, ultraconservative state. Sen. Ernie Chambers has been a leading state/church separation advocate, and his case objecting to paid prayer in his state Senate went all the way to the Supreme Court.

“As an elected official, I know the difference between theology and politics. My interest is in legislation, not salvation.”

— Ernie Chambers in his acceptance speech for the “Hero of the First Amendment” award at the 27th annual FFRF convention, Nov. 12, 2005. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

The son of a former Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi Coates would go on to relaunch the landmark Black Panther comic series featuring the first black superhero. Coates is senior editor at The Atlantic. His signature book is Between the World and Me, and in 2015, he was named a MacArthur “Genius.”

“I am an atheist. I don’t believe the arc of the universe bends towards justice. I don’t even believe in an arc.”

Born enslaved, Douglass escaped slavery at 20, lecturing at personal peril against slavery and founding the weekly publication, North Star. Douglass was the only man to speak in favor of women suffrage at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. He launched The National Era newspaper, became a D.C. U.S. marshal and later became consul-general to Haiti. He was not an atheist, but was highly unorthodox and a life-long civil libertarian and brave pathblazer.

“I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

Earning his doctorate from Harvard in 1894, Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, urging black Americans to stand up for their rights. He co-founded the NAACP and edited its journal, Crisis, for 24 years, turning it into a black literary journal. He has been dubbed the “father of Pan-Africanism.”

“We are still trained to believe a good deal that is simply childish in theology. The outward and visible punishment of every wrong deed that men do, the repeated declaration that anything can be gotten by anyone at any time by prayer.”

NFL Houston Texan player Arian Foster (2009-15), who set franchise records for rushing yards and touchdowns, is a most unusual athlete, who wanted to convey to his fans that “I recognize the light in you.” He was the only member of the team who didn’t identify as either Christian or Catholic. He has dabbled in acting, has a podcast, “Now What? with Arian Foster” and founded the Arian Foster Family Foundation to fight childhood obesity, improve financial literacy and provide personal development to inner-city youth.

He graduated from New York University with a degree in dramatic writing in 2006, then began writing for the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” receiving a Writer’s Guild nomination in 2009. Glover is best known for playing Troy the “jock” in a community college study group on the comedy series “Community.” In addition to writing and acting, Glover performs stand-up and raps. His 2014 album “Because the Internet” was nominated for a Grammy. In the song “Won’t Stop,” Glover refers to himself as “an airport atheist.”

“I think everybody kind of hits that point where they say, ‘Okay, am I doing this out of tradition? Do I actually believe this?’”

Candace Gorham, who went door to door as a Jehovah’s Witness as a child, then became an ordained evangelist as a Pentecostalist at 21, began suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mood disturbances due to church teachings she came to see as psychological abuse. After earning a degree in secondary education and becoming a teacher, she completed her master’s degree focusing on black women’s mental health. Her religious beliefs crumbling, she began the Ebony Exodus Project, which is the title of her 2013 book, subtitled Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion — and Others Should Too.

“Through a long, slow, painful process, I moved through stages of being an unaffiliated believer, to being a non-Christian theist, to being an agnostic, to finally being an atheist.”

The daughter of civil rights activists and intellectuals, Lorraine Hansberry wrote the first drama by a black woman to be produced on Broadway and win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. A Raisin in the Sun (the title derived from a poem by Langston Hughes) was loosely based on her own experiences growing up in Chicago and also became a movie starring Sidney Poitier. Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd, commissioned by the National Broadcasting Co. in 1959, about the American slave trade, which was considered too hot for television and was never produced. Hansberry died of cancer at 34. To Be Young, Gifted and Black was posthumously adapted from her writings and produced off-Broadway in 1969, also appearing in book form.

“I get tired of God getting credit for all the things the human race achieves.”

— Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun, (words ascribed to Beneatha).Photo in the public domain.

The American actor and playwright grew up in a conservative Christian home, graduated from the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and is known for his TV role as Chidi Anagonye, a moral philosophy professor on “The Good Place” (2016). He has portrayed James Harrison and Stokely Carmichael in “Wall the Way” on Broadway, and has written a play inspired by the Texas civil rights movement.

“I think all my neuroses come from having been religious. I hit a point of very studied agnosticism. I kind of like to believe in nothing and everything.”

— William Jackson Harper, New York Times interview, Sept. 14, 2018.Photo by Dominique Redfearn under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. This photo has been cropped from its original version.

Known as the Black Socrates during the Harlem Renaissance, Harrison founded the Colored Socialist Club, then several black radical groups, including the Liberty League and the International Colored Unity League.

“It should seem that Negroes, of all Americans, would be found in the Freethought fold, since they have suffered more than any other class of Americans from the dubious blessings of Christianity.”

Somalian-born Hirsi Ali fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to avoid an arranged marriage, was elected to the Dutch Parliament in 2003 and became a prominent atheist and critic of Islam, particularly against abuse of women under the religion. She was forced to go into hiding when her colleague, Theo van Gogh, was viciously murdered after producing a film, “Submission,” with her. Her critically acclaimed memoir, Infidel, came out in 2005. She founded the AHA Foundation to end honor violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

“I had left God behind years ago.. . . . From now on, I could step firmly on the ground that was under my feet and navigate based on my own reason and self-respect. My moral compass was within myself, not in the pages of a sacred book. . .”

For four decades, he chronicled the black experience and perspective in powerful poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s books. The Nation magazine published his influential essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926), in which Hughes advocated racial pride and independent artistry, giving the Harlem Renaissance its due.

Hughes’ satire on corruption in black storefront churches, Tambourines to Glory (1963), was not popular with black clergy. Biographer Wallace Best wrote that Hughes disagreed with characterizations of him as anti-religious or atheist while reserving the right to criticize dogma and the Christian church.

“Listen, Christ,You did alright in your day, I reckon—But that day’s gone now.They ghosted you up a swell story, too,Called it Bible—But it’s dead now.The popes and the preachers’veMade too much money from it.They’ve sold you to too many.”

Novelist, folklorist and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston attended Howard University, graduated from Barnard and did graduate study at Columbia at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote seven books, including her classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), although she was forced to take “day jobs,” including maid work, to support herself. A Zora Neale Hurston reader, I Love Myself When I am A Laughing . . . And Then Again When I am Looking Mean and Impressive, was published in 1979, after Alice Walker revived interest in her. Her oral history, Barracoon, based on interviews with the last survivor of the slave trade in the United States finally saw the light of day in 2018.

“Strong, self-determining men are notorious for their lack of reverence. Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness.”

— Zora Neale Hurston, “Religion,” from “Dust Tracks on a Road,” 1942, anthologized in African-American Humanism: An Anthology, edited by Norm R. Allen Jr., 1991. Photo in the public domain.

Jaffree, an attorney, won the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Wallace v. Jaffree, (1985), successfully challenging a period of silence for “meditation or voluntary prayer” and a law authorizing teachers to lead “willing students” in prescribed prayer. Jaffree’s children were ostracized, physically harassed and subjected to racial epithets.

“I brought the case because I wanted to encourage toleration among my children. I certainly did not want teachers who have control over my children for at least eight hours over the day to . . . program them into any religious philosophy.”

— Ishmael Jaffree, acceptance speech for “Freethinker of the Year 1985,” awarded by FFRF. Photo by Paul Gaylor.

The “King of Ragtime” propelled that style of music into national prominence when his 1899 “Maple Leaf Rag” became a huge hit. He struggled in his lifetime to support himself, while today he is a household name. He was married at home and buried without a church service, and wrote an opera, “Treemonisha,” where a secular woman is the leader against the town’s useless pastor.

The lawyer, activist, civil-rights advocate and feminist became the first black woman to graduate from Columbia Law School. She ran her own law practice, representing the estates of jazz greats Billy Holiday and Charlie Parker. She co-founded the National Organization for Women, in 1966, and the Media Workshop to better represent black people in journalism and advertising. She started the Feminist Party in 1971, nominating Shirley Chisholm for president, and helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus and the National Black Feminist Organization. She organized a group of feminist attorneys to challenge an anti-abortion law in 1969 in New York, which liberalized abortion the following year. She famously filed tax evasion charges against the Catholic Church for spending money illegally to influence abortion legislation.

“If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”

— Flo Kennedy, coined while on a speaking tour with Gloria Steinem. Photo in the public domain.

Although a profoundly religious minister who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King Jr. believed in a strict separation of church and state. Even though many of his speeches are peppered with references to Jesus and God and often depend for the force of their authority upon “the natural law of God,” King knew that the religious status quo tended to support segregation.

“You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning to sing ‘All Hail the Power of Jesus Name’ and ‘Dear Lord and Father of all Mankind,’ you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America.”

The singer-songwriter known as John Legend started off in a church choir, but began performing in nightclubs after graduating from college and working with big name artists, such as Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. His first album, “Get Lifted,” went platinum and earned three Grammys. He played “Keith” in “La La Land” and co-write and performed the song “Start the Fire” for the soundtrack.

“I feel like religion in a lot of ways was intended to control and subdue people rather than to bring out the best in them.”

An aerospace engineer, Alton Lemon also worked as an Equal Opportunity Officer for HUD, served as president of the Philadelphia Ethical Society, was active in the ACLU and won the landmark Supreme Court case, Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), codifying existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test called the “Lemon Test.”

“If any of the three prongs of the Lemon Test are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional: 1) It must have a secular legislative purpose; 2) Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion; 3) It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.”

American jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” composition is the most recorded jazz standard by any musician. Monk’s idiosyncratic style used unexpected melodic twists, dissonant harmonies and erratic percussive phrases. His views on religion were also unorthodox. He rarely attended church, and a biographer noted he “did not speak about religion in the most flattering terms.”

Best known for her role as Prissy in “Gone With the Wind,” Butterfly McQueen was a near-lifelong atheist. The role of Prissy, she would later say, was not pleasant to play, “But I did my best, my very best.” She quit movie acting in 1947 to avoid further typecasting, supporting herself as a real-life maid, Macy’s saleslady and seamstress, even working as a Macy’s Santa Claus. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science in 1974 at age 64, and was one of FFRF’s first Lifetime Members.

“As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion.”

The London-born film star, with her mother from Zimbabwe and father from the United Kingdom, spent her early days in both Africa and England. She pursued dance at the University of Cambridge and earned a degree in social anthropology in 1995. Her film debut in 1991 was the Australian movie, “Flirting.” She has had roles in many movies, and earned a BAFTA and other awards for her performance in “Crash.” She won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for the HBO TV show, “Westworld.”

“From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn’t fit, I was the black atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns, I was an anomaly.”

Although classically trained, American jazz soloist, saxophonist and composer Charlie Barker, known as “Bird,” was a virtuosic improviser, whose work was crucial to the development of bebop. After his death, Parker’s lifelong partner called him a longtime atheist.

Humanist scholar Anthony Pinn gave up the ministry in favor of humanism. Author, co-author or editor of 35 books, including Writing God’s Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist, Pinn is a professor at Rice University and director of the Institute for Humanist Studies in Washington, D.C.

“Too many humanists and atheists believe disbelief, nontheism, is a prophylactic against nonsense. Because I don’t believe in religion, I cannot be guilty of racism, classism, sexism or homophobia. This is a problem because it doesn’t allow us to take these issues seriously.”

Labor organizer, civil-rights activist and journal editor A. Philip Randolph read freethought authors such as Ingersoll and Paine while growing up, worked as an actor, studied political philosophy in college, founded The Messenger, protesting lynching, and organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, the nation’s first all-black union. Branded one of “the most dangerous Negroes” by the U.S. government, he announced a march on Washington in 1941 to protest lynching, employment discrimination and segregation in the armed forces, causing President Roosevelt to issue an executive order resulting in the Fair Employment Act. His tactics later ended racial segregation in the military. He founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and was chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, whose momentum led to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was a secular humanist who signed the Humanist Manifesto in 1973.

“We consider prayer nothing more than a fervent wish.”

— Asa Philip Randolph, from the mission statement of his magazine, The Messenger. Photo in the public domain.

He was awarded a four-year tuition scholarship to Rutgers, becoming that university’s third black student. Robeson was a 12-letter athlete, Phi Beta Kappa scholar, Cap & Skull Honor Society member and valedictorian of his 1919 graduating class. He earned a law degree from Columbia in 1923, but encountered racial barriers. He turned to theater, starring in Eugene O’Neill’s “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” (1924) and “Emperor Jones.” He changed the words to Jerome Kern’s song “Ol’ Man River” when he starred in “Showboat.” He made 11 films and embarked on popular concert tours around the world, but faced constant “Jim Crow” racism even in Europe. He was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 and denied a passport until 1958. According to Warren Allen Smith in Who’s Who in Hell, Robeson was a nontheist.

Comedian, actor and producer Chris Rock joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1990, has featured in several HBO specials, has won Grammys for comedy albums and has appeared in many movies, including “Dogma” and Netflix specials. Rock’s comedy is peppered with skepticism about religion.

“White people justified slavery and segregation through Christianity, so a black Christian is like a black person with no f***king memory.”

Born to a composer-producer father and an African-American singer-songwriter mother who died when Maya was 7, Rudolph calls her parents “hippies” and her agnostic dad a “pretty adorable Jew.” A New York Times Magazine profile reported, “The family was committedly unreligious.” She earned a B.A. in photographer from Porter College, and became a recurring cast member of “Saturday Night Live” from 2000-2007. She was the fourth black woman to join the cast. She has performed in many movies and TV series, including “Bridesmaids (2011) and “Forever” (2018).

Greydon Square is an outspoken atheist whose clever lyrics focus on atheism, science and other philosophical topics. He also raps about his experiences growing up in Compton, Calif., in a series of group homes, and serving in the Iraq War. Square began studying physics at Arizona State University, but later changed to computer science. He has released many albums, starting with “Absolute” in 2004.

“After a lot of reading and research, I realized I didn’t have any secret channel picking up secret messages from God or anyone else. That voice in my head was my own.”

— Greydon Square, 2010 interview with Martin Pribble for his blog “Attempting to Make Sense.” Photo in the public domain.

Mandisa Thomas, who grew up in a nonreligious household, co-founded Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta in 2011, which soon dropped the “Atlanta” reference when the group went national. After a career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas has become a full-time secular activist and is president of Black Nonbelievers.

“It once felt weird to identify as atheist, but I had to be honest with myself: At the end of the day, I don’t believe in any gods at all.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson, who earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia, became staff scientist for the Hayden Planetarium, wrote the “Universe” essays for Natural History, hosted PBS’ “NOVA ScienceNOW,” and has served on NASA’s advisory council. He has directed the Hayden Planetarium since 2003. He has written many books and hosted the second “Cosmos” PBS series.

“Let there be no doubt that as they are currently practiced, there is no common ground between science and religion.”

Self-described “earthling” and “womanist” Alice Walker, novelist and poet, has written many novels, including The Color Purple, which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, a biography on Langston Hughes and other novels and many essays. Although raised Methodist, she has written against the bible’s sexism and asserts that Mother Nature deserves worship

“What a burden to think one is conceived in sin rather than in pleasure; that one is born into evil rather than into joy.”

Richard Wright, who had to leave school after ninth grade to help support his family, published his first short story when he was 16. He moved to Chicago, sustaining himself by temporary jobs, joined the Communist Party in 1932 and began publishing essays, short stories and poems. He became editor for the Daily Worker in New York. His most famous books, Uncle Tom’s Children and Native Son, were published in 1938 and 1940, respectively. Disillusioned, he left the Communist Party in 1944 and wrote Black Boy, an account of his early experiences, in 1945. To escape racism, he and his family relocated to France in 1947.

“I have no religion in the formal sense of the word. … I have no race except that which is forced upon me. I have no country except that to which I’m obliged to belong. I have no traditions. I’m free. I have only the future.”